Arrow

Arrow

Episode 1: Pilot

By: Carlos Uribe

Arrow is a show about the Green Arrow, a vigilante who seeks justice. It is based on the DC comic superhero Green Arrow. I will be covering this show weekly.

Spoilers Ahoy!

In an era of superhero movies, it's kind of surprising that there aren't many superhero shows currently out there. There have been a few that have tried to succeed, such as No Ordinary Family and The Cape, and there's been some that have had some popularity, such as Smallville and Heroes. Smallville lasted ten whole seasons while Heroes was a huge hit that exponentially lost it's audience and it's quality fell even faster. Those four shows are the only ones I can name that have aired on broadcast television in recent memory. Arrow is the latest addition and it'll hopefully be able to join the “successful” category rather than the other. This is because Arrow is a tight and doesn't repeat the mistakes of the failed shows. No Ordinary Family was ashamed of it's genre as it refused to allow it's characters to be heroes. The Cape was a crazy show that took it's comic book inspiration too seriously. The two had it's moments but they were bogged down by those weaknesses. Arrow is a show that embraces it's premise without taking the style it's comic book source as completely serious. This leads to a tight show that actually has a superhero. This is something that none of those four shows I mentioned actually had: someone wearing a costume fighting crime. Smallville came the closest but even it was embarrassed by the idea of someone wearing a costume. Arrow proves that having a costumed character doesn't detract from the show's quality.

The plot is simple. Oliver Queen was a rich, playboy billionaire. He is in many ways similar to Bruce Wayne. During a trip on a yacht, he's stranded on an island. The sister of the girlfriend he was having sex with dies while the yacht sinks and his father kills himself on the life raft. This leaves him as the sole survivor. He's rescued five years later as a changed man. He pretends to care about the partying but he's now interested in getting justice for his city. His father had entrusted him with a list of names of people that have done wrong. Oliver's job is to go after these people in an attempt to seek redemption for his father's sins. The pilot sets up the idea of there being a weekly villain when Oliver takes down a name on that list, Adam Hunt. Adam's a billionaire who screwed over some people in his real estate deals. The pilot also hints at a larger serialized story with flashbacks to what happened on the island and his mother plotting to find out just what exactly Oliver was told by his father. This mixture of serialization and proceduralization finds a nice balance in the pilot and hopefully future episodes will be able to provide answers rather than stall and promise them. Arrow is off to a great start in terms of plot alone.

The main character, Oliver Queen, manages to work in the pilot's favor. He's a character who has clearly suffered while on the island and Stephen Amell manages to portray that well. Oliver isn't a simple character who wants to fight crime for no real reason. He's being asked by his father to right the wrongs of the father and his friends. Oliver is a character whom the audience can relate to and root for. This makes him a strong protagonist. He does need to be fleshed out in future episodes but I'm sure we'll be seeing him develop as the series goes on. He has a love interest in Dinah Lance. Dinah's sister was the one he was sleeping with and that's an action that he regrets. He clearly has feelings for her but he pushes her away to protect her. Dinah is a lawyer who works to bring justice for the people who can't afford actual lawyers in civil suits. She might be arguably the female lead but the pilot's concentration on Oliver leaves her somewhat undeveloped. I do like the actress portaying her: it's always nice to see Katie Cassidy on my television screen.

Oliver's best friend is Tommy Merlyn. Tommy is largely interested in catching Oliver up to the real world and we're given the impression that they were best friends. One of the few times that Oliver is able to allow himself to act like his old self is when he's around Tommy. It might be an act but I feel that's just a sign of how close they were. Tommy might be the best friend but the series needs to develop him as his own character. In the comics, Merlyn is the archenemy of the Green Arrow and it'll be interesting to see if the series follows the Spiderman trilogy's example of having the best friend be a villain. Oliver's mother is presented mostly as a loving mother but the ending twist helps to make her more interesting. It makes one question just how caring about her son's well-being is an act. Oliver's sister is largely emulating his old self and is one of the only people who refuses to ignore that Oliver's practically been dead to them for five years. There's two other main characters. Dinah's father, Quentin, who blames Oliver for his daughter's death and is going to be a weekly obstacle for our protagonist. John Diggle is the bodyguard of Oliver and his sole purpose in the pilot was to also provide an obstacle on how to get away from him. The two are fine characters but Diggle needs to be developed more as well.

Arrow presents a really good origin story for our protagonist. It's not a story that is necessarily over as we'll be flashing back to the island continuously but it's a good way to set up the series as a whole. A pilot is supposed to set up the characters, the premise, and the formula. It does the plot and premise with spades. The characters need a little bit more work but I'm willing to stick around to see how they turn out. If this pilot is any indication, then the producers know what they're doing and what they want. This will definably be a strength for this new fall drama considering so many other news shows are struggling to find their identity.

Other Notes:

The voice-over narration is simply atrocious and completely unnecessary.

Arrow's premiere got pretty good ratings for the CW. Here's hoping that the series is able to keep a significant portion of that audience.

The way Oliver brought Hunt to justice was remarkably similar to Emily Thorne's approach. It's too bad that they would never be able to team-up in a cross-over.

Tommy might bring Oliver's old self but Oliver's maid is where he's able to let his new self's guard down. It's obvious that the maid was important in Oliver's upbringing and might have acted as his maternal figure.

My thoughts on those four superhero shows I mentioned: No Ordinary Family had a decent pilot but it's refusal to embrace the superpowers throughout the season made it frustrating, The Cape was crazy fun that was awesome but it didn't make for a good show, Smallville changed it's status quo too slowly at times and this led to it becoming repetitive, and Heroes had a good first season but managed to gradually get worse as it went on and I kept watching to see how terrible it was getting with each episode.